


In War, Victory. In Peace, Vigilance.

by Katalyna_Rose



Series: Kahlia Mahariel [16]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-03
Updated: 2017-01-03
Packaged: 2018-09-14 11:23:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9179374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katalyna_Rose/pseuds/Katalyna_Rose
Summary: Kahlia has found her way back to Zevran, and not even her oaths to the Grey Wardens will be able to separate them now.





	

It wasn’t the motto that Kahlia hated. It was a good motto. It was the lengths some Wardens went to in an attempt to uphold it. It was how many of them would insist that she had a duty to return to the ranks of the Wardens even after six years imprisoned in the Deep Roads with the darkspawn. She knew exactly how many Wardens would look at all her scars, know what they were from, and send her back underground. They would tell her that it was to let her work out her anger on the beasts that hurt her, but they wouldn’t really mean that.

Kahlia understood the Wardens. She understood the oath and why it all existed. She knew it was necessary. She just couldn’t be a part of it anymore.

“Just a little more,” Zevran said softly when she hissed in pain. He was changing the bandage on one of the last cuts that hadn’t scarred over yet. Because the wounds, and Kahlia herself, had the Blight, they couldn’t go to a healer. Now that the Circles had fallen apart, they couldn’t find an apostate to blackmail to keep her secrets. They were all apostates now, and none could be trusted not to tell the Wardens about their runaway hero.

Zevran’s breathing was harsh and shaking, but his hands were as steady as ever as he applied a fresh layer of elfroot salve and wound a clean bandage around her torso. Once he was finished, he wrapped her in his arms and just held on, shaking.

“Shh, Zev,” Kahlia said. “I’m here. I’m alright.”

“I can’t believe you survived…” he whispered. With gentle fingers, he touched the acid burns around her neck, the ones shaped vaguely like fingers. He knew what they were, had seen the way darkspawn blood burned the flesh. He knew that she’d fought hard, had bloodied a beast nearly to death, before she received those burns.

“But I did survive,” she reminded him. “I’m here now. I found you. And as long as no one ever tries to make me go back to the Wardens, we have nothing to fear from the darkspawn again.”

“Never,” he said harshly, gripping her just a little too tight. Though his touch didn’t hurt, a memory of pain flickered and made her flinch. He loosened his grip but didn’t release her entirely. “I will die before I let the Wardens take you back.” Kahlia met his gaze.

“I know,” she said. She leaned in for a kiss, and he held her gently. Though she had been free for over two years, had been back with him for months, she still couldn’t be intimate with him. He never pressed, never complained. He waited with her, helping her heal slowly. When she kissed him, he took what she offered and never pressed for more. He knew she was hurt, and he knew the road back to what she’d been would be very long, and he stayed anyway.

“I love you, Kahlia,” he said as she pulled away. He kissed her nose and she sighed softly.

“I love you, too.”

It wasn’t that she hated the Wardens and their ideals. It was that they would take away her only happiness because of their “duty.” And she wouldn’t let that happen again.


End file.
